Survivors from a fishing tragedy off the Kimberley coast earlier this year say it's time to rethink Australia and Indonesia's maritime border policy.
"It certainly tells me that they're desperate if they're willing to take that risk in the monsoon season," he said.He said it was OK for fishers with modern vessels.
"It's been the stimulus to take it from a relatively small problem to a fairly serious one," Mr Barker said. "I don't think we have been really soft, but overall Australia has been very generous to the Indonesian fishermen, and for that matter, to the East Timorese," he said."We need to sit down with them and explain to them — these guys are fishing in [Australian] waters and we are at our limits as to how much border control and search and rescue we can do ourselves.
"We're talking about people that earn approximately $5 a day – that's their life, that's their livelihood, they need to be able to fish."
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